Caro
LightNews LightNews
soaniclb.bsky.social
Caro
@soaniclb.bsky.social
150 followers 450 following 200 posts
More in hope.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Caro
drmatthewsweet.bsky.social
This is a wonderful thread. Scholarship, creativity, a portrait of a generation.
bfletcherwatson.bsky.social Ben Fletcher-Watson @bfletcherwatson.bsky.social · 16d
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
December 1, 2025 at 9:14 AM
soaniclb.bsky.social
This is the loveliest tribute to his wife, the writer Rachel Cooke, by Anthony Quinn in the Observer:https://observer.co.uk/style/features/article/her-amazing-smile-was-undimmed-and-i-would-try-anything-to-summon-it
November 21, 2025 at 2:33 PM
soaniclb.bsky.social
Very good news and the result of some fine reporting and an unsensational but gripping podcast series.
laurahughesft.bsky.social Laura Hughes @laurahughesft.bsky.social · 29d
This is potentially huge. The UK is launching its first screening study for lead poisoning, targeting hidden exposure in children and laying the groundwork for nationwide testing.
www.ft.com/content/f2bb...
UK to launch first lead poisoning screening study of children after FT investigation
Leeds examination to target hidden exposure in the young and lay groundwork for national testing
www.ft.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by Caro
akennedysmith.bsky.social
'Sharp women everywhere, I tell you: be pointy and proud.' One of my favourite Rachel Cooke reviews (there are so many to choose from). She was especially good at writing about group biography, having written one herself (Her Brilliant Career). What a fantastic critic she was, a one-off.
Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean – review
Dean’s group biography of female writers who dared speak their mind is a great and worthy project
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:19 PM
soaniclb.bsky.social
This is such dreadful news: Rachel Cooke was a marvellous, funny, intelligent writer. I was wondering where she was only yesterday, searching to find her most recent article: on losing her appetite…
gsnowdon.bsky.social Graham Snowdon @gsnowdon.bsky.social · Nov 14
Wonderful and moving tribute by @timadamswrites.bsky.social to Rachel Cooke, the brilliant Observer journalist who also frequently lit up the pages of the Guardian Weekly, who has died at the age of 56.

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Remembering Rachel Cooke | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by Caro
john-self.bsky.social
Attorneys General
Courts Martial
Poets Laureate
Bodies Politic
Balls Bearing
Yorkies Duo
October 26, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Caro
rmcunliffe.bsky.social
"I hear again and again that the Israelis – the Jews – had it coming. Knowing allusions to Jewish influence, Jewish power. Stereotypes of Jewish cruelty."

Written before today's attack on a Manchester synagogue. It's the kind of piece I never thought I'd write.

www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
The 7 October attacks changed what it means to be Jewish in Britain
The war in Gaza has exposed a level of anti-Semitism I didn’t realise was there
www.newstatesman.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Caro
isabellarosner.bsky.social
Best thing ever from the V&A stores today: on the front of Margret Mason’s 1660 sampler are clothed “boxer” figures (little men holding gifts, acorns here). Turn the sampler over and the men look much the same but are completely naked!
September 23, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Caro
gavinjackson.bsky.social
September 27, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Caro
lizziebally.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/style/garden...
'If garden tools really count as weaponry, I’m in command...
Since when were secateurs ‘a bladed weapon in a public space’?
observer.co.uk
September 21, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Caro
bhgreeley.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/ca4a...
September 11, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Caro
osaumarezsmith.bsky.social
Very sad to hear about the death of Andrew Saint, pictured here giving huge architectural history energy with Gavin Stamp at the NT. His books all written with tremendous style across a terrific range of topics. Towards a Social Architecture, his superb history of post-war schools my favourite.
July 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Caro
murielzagha.bsky.social
For @engelsbergideas.bsky.social I wrote about Metropolitan, a timeless witty comedy of manners - about virtue, no less - by @whitstillman.bsky.social
June 11, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Caro
larkingrumple.bsky.social
Great to sit down with John Gilhooly the other week to talk about season planning, Yunchan Lim, ACE and… surtitling Lieder recitals! @wigmore-hall.org.uk
bachtrack.com/interview-jo...
On top of the chamber music world: Wigmore Hall’s John Gilhooly
The London venue’s Artistic Director talks about Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary season, programming 600 concerts – and finding ways to pay for it all.
bachtrack.com
April 23, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Caro
levparikian.bsky.social
Me, in The Guardian, wanging on about spring. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Country diary: A burbling blackbird, an early great tit – the sounds of spring are starting to happen | Lev Parikian
West Norwood, London: Listen closely and you’ll hear that rehearsals are under way for the more full-throated performances in the coming months
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Caro
mathewlyons.bsky.social
Something I’ve been working on for months: a long read about Nottingham alabasters - those beautiful and obscure objects of medieval devotion open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...
Nottingham alabaster: objects of strangeness, mystery and devotion
How the English Reformation tried to obliterate a unique medieval artform
open.substack.com
January 30, 2025 at 8:26 AM
soaniclb.bsky.social
Lovely piece by @mathewlyons.bsky.social inspired by going through his parents’ books

mathewlyons.substack.com/p/the-librar...
We get a frisson - at least I do - when we hear someone speak about a book we know intimately ourselves - as if the depth and delicacy of our connection to the words it contains connects us to them also. The web of words vibrates a little and we feel it, the pressure of another person's life, their thoughts and experiences humming through the threads and wires. So you heard it too, I think to myself.
January 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Caro
tds153.bsky.social
Fascinating long read which makes me disinclined ever to enter a Samuel Smiths pub again (not that it happened very often).

www.theguardian.com/news/2024/de...
Humphrey’s world: how the Samuel Smith beer baron built Britain’s strangest pub chain
Since the 1970s, Humphrey Smith has acquired scores of pubs and historic properties around the UK. But time after time, he has left the buildings empty. Why has he allowed his empire to moulder?
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2024 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by Caro
drnwillburger.bsky.social
A hand made of bronze and gold. It has been interpreted as the earliest proshetic hand for a casualty of conflict, a symbol for the status of the bearer. However, the solar symbols on the cuff suggest that it had also a cosmological significance.
Found in Prêles, ...🧵1/2

#archaeology 🏺
📷by me
A close-up of a bronze hand with a cuff of gold foil on the wrist, the cuff is decorated with concentric circles. The fingers a broken off. Part of the thumb is missing. Length 17.8 cm.
December 14, 2024 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Caro
samfr.bsky.social
New post just out:

My Books of the Year 2024

Ideas for late presents or just to keep yourself occupied while the terrible Christmas TV is on.

(Free to read)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...
Books of the Year 2024
It’s that time of year when I reveal my favourite books of the year and hopefully give a bit of help to late present buyers.
open.substack.com
December 14, 2024 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Caro
jamesbarr.bsky.social
This is an excellent article by @raniaab.bsky.social
The Fall of Assad’s Syria
In the wake of President Bashar al-Assad’s remarkable abdication of power, jubilation and fear collide as the country—and the region—faces an uncertain future.
www.newyorker.com
December 9, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Caro
greenmirandahere.bsky.social
erm ... hello?
November 25, 2024 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Caro
john-self.bsky.social
Which judge resigned because the books were "mere pornography"? Which author, according to another judge, "puts one off sex"? Which book did Saul Bellow dismiss as a "tinkling teacup thing"? Who refused to give the prize to a book about cannibalism?

I wrote about the Booker Prize in the 1970s:
The Booker in the 1970s: 10 novels that are well worth rediscovering, five decades later | The Booker Prizes
The Booker shortlists of the 1970s are of exceptionally high quality, and while some of the novels may have fallen out of fashion, they’re essential volumes for any keen reader’s library
thebookerprizes.com
November 19, 2024 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Caro
allanjenkins21.bsky.social
fine list: much to love here
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/t...
The 25 Most Influential Cookbooks From the Last 100 Years
Chefs, writers, editors and a bookseller gathered to debate — and decide — which titles have most changed the way we cook and eat.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2024 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Caro
hendopolis.bsky.social
Just going to post #TomorrowsPapersToday here tonight as well as at the other place as a little test…
November 16, 2024 at 8:27 PM